Gucci expands website reach

Gucci has extended its website’s global reach.

The site, gucci.com, was launched in North America in October (15), developed under the label’s creative director Alessandro Michele. Its now been rolled out to Europe, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

The web page features e-commerce plus plenty of fashion photos for style lovers to admire. There is also an editorial section, titled The Agenda.

Gucci predicts that 60 per cent of its traffic is from smartphones, so the website is mobile-friendly and available to access in 22 countries across Europe. It’s also translated into five languages; English, Italian, French, German and Spanish.

As well as the website expansion, Alessandro has another reason to celebrate – he will receive the International Award at The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Awards on 6 June.

The Italian designer stepped into the Gucci role in early 2015 after Frida Giannini shocked the fashion world when she left the label earlier than expected, after nine years at the helm.

At the time Alessandro was relatively unknown, but had been working at Gucci’s design studio since 2002.

“Alessandro is not a big name. He is under the radar,” Marco Bizzarri, Gucci president and chief executive officer, told WWD at the time. “He is known in the company as being the most talented person and is very much respected by the team. He knows Gucci inside and out.”

The move paid off and Alessandro has become the darling of fashion, and has also dominated the music world with his frequent collaborations with Florence + the Machine singer Florence Welch. Florence is even wearing a Gucci-designed wardrobe on her current How Beautiful tour.